Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Mad and Well-Read

This essay by Philip Terzian on the death of Al Feldstein, founder of Mad magazine, reminded me of my days as a young Mad subscriber. I believe the magazine has declined and has become coarse but in its golden years, each new issue of Mad had much to savor.

I still have a box filled with old issues.

Aside from great cartoonists such as Mort Drucker, the magazine had a sort of intellectual appeal. I can still recite some of the lines from the movie spoof "East Side Story" in which JFK, Harold Macmillan, Charles de Gaulle, and Adlai Stevenson are a gang fighting Nikita Khrushchev and his gang near the United Nations. ["Tonight, Nikita made an error, his wife's a holy terror, a stick of dynamite."]

In order to appreciate the humor the young readers in those days had to possess a basic knowledge of current political events and personalities.

I doubt if a similar story would work that well today.

2 comments:

Jeff Jacobs said...

Saddened by the recent death of Mort Drucker. Yes, I can still recite those same 'East Side Story' lyrics: When you’re a Red, You’re a Red all the way, From your first party purge, To your last power play.

Michael Wade said...

Jeff,

Mort Drucker was, in a word, great.

Rest in Peace.

Michael